F U N D R A I S I N G I D E A S

F O R Y O U R V O L U N T E E R

T R I P A B R O A Dw w w . e d g e o f a f r i c a . c o m

When you make the decision tovolunteer abroad you first may beoverwhelmed by all the obstacles, thebiggest one being how can I afford to dothis? The best option is to fundraise! Planning a fundraising event is achallenging task, but the end result makes it all worthwhile. Thisdocument will hopefully inspire you to get fundraising for your dreamvolunteer trip to Africa! 

1. Pick your people

Your first step is setting up a good team to help you, call in thosefavours with friends and family members and get their support! Onceyou have everyone on board to help, you need to choose the rightfundraiser for you. 

2. Your Moolah Making Method

There are many different types offundraisers from bar nights tosporting events. Here is a list of theones we think are effective, funand not too difficult to pulltogether; 

- If you’re Legal with Liquor

If you are of legal age at home hit up your local pub or bar, explain tothem what you are trying to do and where you are going and you'll findmost people are willing to help. Make a plan to get all of your friends and family go to that bar on a certain night and you receive all the entrance charges. The barmanagement will be happy because it's full and they will make theirmoney on the drink sales but for as little as $10 per person you canmake enough to cover your volunteer fees. Your friends get to support you and your endeavour while having agreat night with you before you leave. You could even have an Africadress up theme or hold a bar quiz based on Africa trivia.

- Get Active

A sports competition can be a great way to raisemoney, It can be held at a local gym or sorts field.Participants can come on their own or in a team and pay to play. You could have floor hockey, soccer, basketball orrugby games. Having a competition is always a greatway to get people involved. Prizes can be given outto the winning team, if you look at your local sportsshops you may even be able to get the prizedonated.

- Band Aid

A band night is a fun and great way to showcaselocal talent. Find a local, undiscovered (andtalented) band and organise for them to play for a couple of hours. You can sell tickets online inadvance, or charge at the door where all theproceeds are donated to your cause. Choosing a location, such as a restaurant or bar (ifyou’re of legal age) that usually has live music is agood option seeing as all the equipment is alreadythere. You could tent out the restaurant or bar forthe night of the event. The venue chosen will havefood and drinks so no need to cater for the event.Seeing as you are providing the bar or restaurantwith a lot of business an arrangement can be madewhere part of the proceeds from the food andbeverage purchased can go to help support you. 

- Caddies and Carts

Planning a fundraising golf tournament requires a lot of planning andorganization. However, it has the potential to raise a lot of money. Invitations to the event can be sent using broadcast emails andparticipants can register and pay their registration fees online. Participants can have a personal and team fundraising page, where allthe donations can be made online from the event website. Sponsorshipscan be made online and recognized for their contributions. An onlineauction and raffle are additional ways to make even more money. Thewinning team will win a prize, which you can get donated from the golfshop where you are holding the event. Following the tournament there is usually a celebratory dinner which willrequire a significant amount of planning, such as food, music,decorations, etc. But if planned and budgeted well can be a verysuccessful event. 

- Sunday Summer Cinema

During the summer months, Sunday afternoonoutdoor movies in the park have proved to bevery successful. Rent a big screen, and set up amovie day. If you promote well using socialmedia, and choose a classic movie for all, thiswill be a very successful event. People come tothe park, bring their own chairs and pay a fee tosit and watch the movie with family and friends.Another way to make some additional money isto sell popcorn and cool drinks, once the smellof the popcorn starts everyone will want a bag.

- High School Lock Down

If you are still in high school things there are plenty of traditionalideas to fundraise (such as cake sale, sponsored walks etc.). Youhave a captive audience (hundreds or even thousands of studentsand their parents to use, so take advantage! Our favourite idea is a school lock in, which can raise you a lot ofmoney. Plan activities throughout the night, so no one has a chanceto sleep! Use the different classrooms for different things, movies inone room, games in another and so on. Everyone who attends willreceive a donation form and they can get donations from their friends and family to stay awake all night for a goodcause. 

- Appeal to the Masses

The new up and coming way to fundraise is crowd funding online. You create a fundraising page and promote it through all your friends, family members and social media pages. Most of thesesites will have an online payment option. So people can look at whatyou’re trying to achieve and make a small or large donation to help youget there. You set your goal and watch how great the people thatsurround you are.  Every small donation adds up and quite quicklyyou'll find you've reached your goal amount. You can set up a fundraising page on our Fund my Travel platformhere: https://www.fundmytravel.com/partner/EDGE-of-AFRICA , or youcan choose to use other platforms such as www.crowdrise.com orwww.crowdfunder.com

- Tis The Season…

Make sure you remember to use yourholidays. With holidays the ideas areendless, breakfast with the Easter bunny,Christmas tree lots, pumpkin sales, etc. Another good idea for the Decembermonth is to host babysitting days. Youcan set up play groups, get your friendsto help out and the parents can do alltheir Christmas shopping without havingto worry about their child. 

- At The Car Wash

Doing a car wash has proved to be aquite successful and fun event. Set up outside a local petrol station, blast themusic and get all your friends to help.You get a day in the sun washing somecars with friends and get to raise moneyin the meantime. Choose a busy street on a Saturdaywhen a lot of people are doing theirweekend shopping and it will besuccessful, everyone wants a clean car.Doing a competition for everyonehelping you is another way to raise someextra money, if everyone can get an extranickel per car x100 cars= $5, then $5 x 20people helping you is an extra $400!

- Jog-a-long

Most people these days are tryingharder to get more in shape so why notdo a run-a-thon. You can get the wholetown involved, set up a route and havepeople get sponsored from theirfriends and family to finish the race. When they finish all the donations willgo towards your cause, and you can geta great prizes sponsored for first,second and third place, and get creativewith other prizes such as ‘most raised’,‘best outfit’, ‘last to finish’ etc

- Bump that Junk

A community yard sale isalways a good idea. Everyonehas junk that they need to getrid of, go around your townand collect it. Someone else's trash isalways someone's treasure.They get to get rid of thethings they don't want orneed and you get to sell it tosomeone who really wants it. 

- Sweet Biddings

If you can budget well, a dinner and dessert auction works well. You charge an entrance and that can go towards the dinner part of it and have every person attending bring a dessert of their choice. After dinner, auction off all the desserts for donations. It gets everyone involved and a fun night out to dress up and have a great time. 

3. Get the word out

The best strategy to make sure your attendance is high is to always bepersistent, promote the event, continuously update your website andbuild excitement. Make it an event you can't miss! Just remember this is the time ofsocial media so take it to your advantage, post daily on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram, make it so that every time they log in it's yourevent they see, that way it's too hard to pass up.

4. Planning and organisation

The list of ideas can go on and on, once you choose a good team setup a brainstorming party, pick the best option that works for all of you. Make sure you stick to your timeline; it makes things run muchsmoother. Start 6-3 months before the event, 3-1 month before theevent and then each week thereafter. It will be much easier and less stressful if it's not all at once. Allocatejobs for everyone for each week or month and make sure they getdone within your time. That way the week of the event is just last minute preparations and not trying to get the big jobs done. 

5. Gratitude

Regardless of the type of event you have,you should send thank you emails to allthe guests, participants, your teammembers, volunteers, sponsors anddonors for their contributions. It shouldre-iterate the purpose of the event, where the moneyis going is going and how much theevent raised in total. Photos and videosshould be uploaded to all fundraising event pages. 

Information & Resources:

Click here to visit our website

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Happy Fundra is ing ! P lease fee l free to contact us on info@edgeofafr ica .com if you have any quest ions .

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